BAHRAIN – - A'ali Burial Mound - Work is underway to return boulders stolen from historical sites in A'ali by saboteurs to set up roadblocks during clashes with police. Masked youths had cut the barbed wire fence surrounding the village's burial mounds earlier this month, took the boulders and used them to block roads. Some of the historical boulders have also been broken into smaller pieces when they were removed from the streets by cleaning companies, the GDN earlier reported. The ministry had submitted a tentative list of 11 locations across Bahrain, crowned with A'ali's Royal Burial Mounds dating from the Dilmun period more than 3,500 years ago, that it wants included in the World Heritage Site list. It would also include burial mounds and historic relics, such as remains of temples in Abu Janadal and Wadi Al Sail in the Southern Governorate, three in Hamad Town and one each in Janabiya, Saar, Al Qadam, Shakhoora and Janusan.

IRLANDE – Schull Harbour - Underwater archaeologists are investigating the wreck of a wooden merchant ship that carried a cargo of coconuts discovered during pipe works in Schull Harbour. The ship, believed to date back to the 16th century, is buried in the seabed in 10m of water just off the shoreline. Little is known of the wreck’s origins at present as archaeologist’s work continues.

CANADA – Lebreton Flats - In the Lebreton Flats neighborhood of Ottawa, Canada, archaeologists are excavating an area where privies and other outbuildings stood in the nineteenth century, ahead of the construction of a light rail tunnel. They have uncovered a pipe stem from the 1880s and a penny from the 1850s. In addition, a hotel that had been converted for industrial use will be investigated.

ISRAEL – Judean desert - A Neolithic limestone mask that could represent early human attempts to connect with the spiritual world will be auctioned in the United States next month. The 9,000-year-old mask was found in the Judean desert. It evokes a human skull and resembles a modern-day hockey mask. The mask is the oldest art object ever offered at Christie's auction house in New York. Christie's antiquities department head Molly Morse Limmer says it is one of the earliest sculptural types to survive from antiquity. "Only very few of these masks are known," she said. "All were found in the Judean desert, all were carved of limestone, and all represent the human skull." The Judean desert's extreme dry conditions helped preserve the mask. Its function is a mystery, but Ms Limmer says its origins date to a time when complex societies were first evolving. "No doubt they represent one of the earliest human attempts to connect with the spiritual world," she said. "Given the skeletal representation, it would be logical that they relate to death rituals or ancestor worship."